JULY 22, 2004

GERMAN GP - PREVIEW

Originally a pre-war Mercedes test track of two long straights through the forest linked by the long sweeping Ostkurve and a hairpin in Hockenheim village, post-war development saw the emergence of the modern circuit after the Second World War. Infamous for the death of Jim Clark in a Formula 2 race, the first Grand Prix at Hockenheim was in 1970 - a classic slipstreaming battle won by Jochen Rindt. Two chicanes beoke up the long straights by the time the Grand Prix arrived permanently in 1977 and a third was added at the Ostkurve after Patrick Depailler's death in 1980. F1's theatre of sheer speed (the Arrows of Jos Verstappen achieved 217mph in 2000).